A Different Perspective
by TwoFlowersAndABunchOfTrees
Summary: "Hey Gem, how would you summarise my story?"   "Your story? How about a poor innocent rebellion demigod is forced to babysit a useless son of Apollo during the battle of Manhattan?"   "Shut up...and it is my story"  "Sure it is"
1. How I Missed Nearly Everthing

"**Hellhounds leaped ahead of the line from time to time. Most were destroyed with arrows, but one got hold of an unlucky Apollo camper and dragged him away. I didn't see what happened to him next. I didn't want to know."-Last Olympian, page 170**

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><p>Jamie Wright's the name and being the first to die is the game.<p>

I knew we were screwed as soon as I saw the Minotaur, even my mentalist of a head counsellor Michael Yew paled at that sight. There were sixteen of us, including me, against a whole massive army. And none of us were any good at all at close range so all we could hope to do was fend them off with arrows which didn't work too well. This gets us to my current predicament, which is being dragged off by a hungry hellhound to eat in peace.

All I can say is I'd better get into bloody Elysium. The only reason I got grabbed was that I was trying to get this snoring old man out of his car and to safety. Well he was heavy and I didn't see the Hellhound coming at me until it was too late.

One of my sisters screamed as it bit down on my arm and started to pull me away. A couple of my siblings tried shooting at it but I remember Austin shouting that they'd just hit me. I'd like to say that I sarcastically yelled back that being shot was a **lot** less painful than being eaten alive. In truth I was too busy screaming my head off and trying to yank my arm away. It didn't work, obviously, but it did maul my arm even worse.

I'm pretty sure that my arm would actually have come off if the dog had dragged me a few more yards. As it was, it got me through the battle lines and down a side street before letting go.

Lying there in the road I made the mistake of actually looking at my arm, needless to say it wasn't pretty. There was blood everywhere and a very visible bite mark; I felt myself go dizzy and I thought I would actually throw up.

The Hellhound seemed as concerned with the damage as I was, it tried to lick at the blood but I pulled away. I tried to make a run for it or more like a crawl for it, with one arm. Funnily enough it didn't work.

It grabbed me by my hoodie hood; stupid Kayla and her stupid 'foresight', she told me to tuck it into my armour. And now I was gonna die cause I didn't listen to something that crackpot said, it just wasn't fair.

The Hellhound's head suddenly shot up, taking me with it. It must have smelt something because it charged off, jolting me around like a sack of potatoes or some other cliché.

We must have run for ages or that's how it felt anyway, I've never been a good judge of time. It all passed in a kind of blur, all I could think about was how much blood I must have lost and how even if I could escape I'd probably die from that. I'm cheerful like that.

Then the stupid mutt just dropped me. It kind of took me by surprise; I could still hear battle and everything so we couldn't have gone that far. Apparently Devil Dog was really hungry and couldn't wait any longer for his lunch, or would it be dinner by now? Like I said, not good woith time; especially when I've lost a ton of blood.

That said he didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry. The Hellhound wasn't even looking at me, just sniffing at the air and peering off to the side of me. He had very expressive eyes, considering they were all blood red and evil. In fact they almost looked expectant, like he waiting for a treat or something.

Then I heard the voice, a girl's voice, behind me "Oh crap…"


	2. Cheesy Names and An Interrogation

I'm not sure who was more shocked; me or the Devil Dog trainer girl who'd got me as a present.

We just stared at each other, not sure how to react. She took in the Camp Half Blood t-shirt under my armour and visibly paled. As for me, I didn't recognise her from camp and I'd spent a few months in Hermes Cabin myself. So why was she staring at me like she'd seen a ghost?

She opened her mouth and a choked "Marley?" came bursting out. She looked like she was actually on the verge of tears or something.

The look of confusion must have given me away and the fact I started slowly backing away from the crazy girl. Her expression slowly hardened as she pulled herself together and she pulled a leaf shaped short sword, Mark would shout at me for not calling it a Xiphos or whatever the proper name was, from the sheath resting lopsidedly on her hips.

The hellhound barked loudly at the sight of the blade and sat, cowering away. I would have felt sorry for it, you know if it hadn't just nearly detached my arm. The girl glanced at it and her expression softened, slightly "Its o.k Angel, good dog"

I blinked all thoughts of danger momentarily gone. "You called a hellhound Angel?"

The glare she gave me was worthy of Medusa, hey maybe that was her godly or gorgon-ly parentage. Nah she wasn't that ugly, heck was that even possible? Maybe if he kept his eyes closed, or maybe she wore glasses…

"What are you doing here?" The girl asked, the threatening voice somewhat undermined by the fact she was now stroking Angel's head. I decided to show her I wasn't scared of her; sure she might be armed and in full health, with the possible exception of malnutrition, and I might be both injured and unarmed but what the heck.

"Ask your stupid dog" I growled, or at least I hoped it sounded like growling. Judging from her expression probably not, "I was busy kicking your friends sorry asses back to Tarturus where they belong when the mutt-" I tried to think of a heroic way to put 'dragged me off by my arm' but she cut me off.

"Bit your sorry ass, yes I can see that" she remarked dryly, glancing at my arm with distaste "So you were on the Williamsburg Bridge?" she asked, looking at me with sharp hazel eyes. Her whole look was sharp; heart shaped face, pointy noise, straight hair, thin mouth and elbows that looked like they could do serious damage. Not to mention the sword-

She was glaring at me again, waiting for me to answer her question "Yeah I was" I decided not to mention the fact that we'd been getting pummelled when I left. Better to let her think that there might be reinforcements coming for me any time now.

Then I noticed she wasn't quite looking at me, just a point slightly over my head; like she couldn't look at me or something. It was slightly unnerving, unless that streetlight had particularly offended her "I see"

"You're with Kronos" I blurted out, uncomfortable with the silence. Plus I wanted to try to work out my chances of making it through the next hour without feeling that sword. But surely if she was going to kill me she'd have done it already-

A _look_ flickered across her face but she pulled it together "As far as you're concerned, yes I am. Now" she raised her sword and pointed it at my arm imperiously "Can you stand?"

"No" I said bluntly, at least I had no intention of trying. There was no way that piles of bones could lift me, hope fluttered in my stomach; she couldn't do anything with me. Apart from kill me and I didn't think she was up to that, however hard she wanted to be.

Her eyes narrowed threateningly "Try"

"I can't" I said, trying to sound as pathetic as I could. My big brown eyes usually had girls all over me before you could say 'Thank you Aphrodite' and besides, my Dad was the God of theatre. If I couldn't pull off pathetic to save my life I probably deserved whatever I got.

The girl bit her lip, making me feel pretty smug. Until I realised she was trying to stop herself smiling "Do you know how stupid it looks when a son of Apollo tries to lie?"

I felt my face go as red as the crusting blood on my arm, then something occurred to me "How did you know I was a son of Apollo?"

The little half smile disappeared instantly "Mind your own-" she snapped before taking a deep breath "Can you get up or not?"

Tries to lie indeed, fine let her have it straight "I won't get up, whether I can or not is utterly irrelevant"

"Utterly irrelevant" she repeated, mocking me with crossed arms and cold eyes "Right" She turned to Angel, who had been sniffing a sleeping woman nearby with dubious intent.

"Angel!" the hellhound backed up very fast, her ears down in shame. Again, I found myself feeling sorry for her; it must have been the eyes. Stupid puppy dog eyes.

"Angel" the girl said in a softer tone before pointing at me "Guard"

"Hang on" I began before realising I was talking to a hellhound; the girl was nowhere to be seen. "What the-?" I muttered looking around, where the heck was she "Where are you?"

Angel let out a small woof, running over to me and wagging her tail expectantly. She reminded me of a dog that lived in my neighbourhood that was an overfriendly pain in the ass too. She barked again, louder this time; "What do you want?" I snapped, not at all happy with this arrangement.

The hellhound put her head on one side, looking confused. Then she licked at the blood on my arm, gently and slowly, like she was trying to help. This time I didn't pull away, gods I'd been such an idiot. I'd applied hellhound drool to loads of cuts in the infirmary, it had slight healing properties and stemmed bleeding; Angel was actually trying to help.

And it was working, the bleeding completely stopped; Angel backed up and looked at me hopefully "Err…good dog" I said slowly and was rewarded with a stone cracking bark.

I experimented with moving my arm slightly, it hurt but it wasn't unbearable. I could probably get up and then…

I edged my weight onto my knees before fixing my guard with a winning smile "Hey Angel, you like to play?"

Another bark as Angel charged up to me, all excited. "O.k" I got slowly to my feet, watching the giant head warily "Shall we see if we can find something to play with?" I continued in a happy cheerful sing-songy voice, silently chanting 'Please don't eat me'

Before I could do anything else a sudden noise thundered through the street. It must have been heard all over the island, it sounded like a building had come down or something. And then the vibration hit, it knocked me clean off my feet and even the hellhound barked in surprise.

Then I realised where the noise had come from; the Williamsburg Bridge had collapsed, leaving me on the wrong side.


	3. I Want Scary Girl Back

**My Gods it can't be an update…**

**I know its been awhile but thank you anonymous reviewer, you inspired me to finally finish this chapter. Thank you. And to anyone else who's reading this, I hope you enjoy**

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><p>I must have lay there for a minute or two before Angel's bark shook me to my senses. I slowly got to my feet, wary of falling over yet again; I was so glad no one but the hellhound had seen that, Austin would never have let me live it down.<p>

I caught a glance of myself in a nearby window and ran a hand through my hair. I looked a mess, especially my arm, but nothing unfixable…And no neon letters spelling "LIAR" either, how in Hades had she known? Maybe she was an enemy medic, which would explain why she was nowhere near the battle.

Angel took advantage of my musings to lick all the way up my body, absolutely soaking one side of me, before barking loudly and wagging her tail. This caused a streetlight to come crashing to the floor, yet another sign of where I was and an invitation to come and get me.

I needed to get out of here; scary Girl would probably be back any minute, possibly with reinforcements. Maybe I could make it too one of the other bridges or something.

Except I didn't have a clue where I was going and I couldn't exactly ask a local. "You know how to get to the Lincoln Tunnel?" I asked Angel, who was growing on me more and more as my arm healed. "No?"

Suddenly I felt something hard and pointy in the small of my back and a deep voice "Why would you need to know the way to the Lincoln Tunnel?"

Scary Girl was back with a boyfriend, great. I turned around, very slowly "No reason…"

No Scary Girl in sight, in fact I found myself thinking wistfully of our warm, heartfelt conversation as I looked at the ox of a guy sneering at me from behind a helmet. This guy would have no problem burying his axe in my head, hades he looked like he could break my neck without much trouble. Give me Scary Girl any day.

"Well if it isn't one of the God's little puppets" he jabbed at my shirt with his free hand "What are you, Demeter, Aphrodite?"

I don't know what made me do it; you know when you get so nervous that you start laughing? Well it was kinda like that, just with verbal diarrhoea. "No… though I can see how you might think that, what with how gorgeous I am and all that. But I don't really swing that way myself but good for you…"

That was when his fist connected with my head; yeah I'd made him so mad he'd dropped his axe, go figure "You calling me a queer?"

Despite the pain in my head, I wasn't done "I think what you mean to say is 'Are you calling me homosexual? To phrase it any other way really just shows intolerance and ignorance on your part, but that would match your Nazi hairstyle pretty well"

"You little…." He had his hands; they were more like catcher's mitts really, around my neck. This finally shut me up as the only noises I could rally make were coughing and choking. Then I felt myself being lifted off the ground

So this is it. I'm not gonna get killed by some monster, but by another demigod. I could have been under that helmet, I'd thought about joining Kronos enough times…

Unexpectedly I felt a firm hand on my chest and the hands let go, letting me crumple to the floor gagging. Not-So-Scary-Anymore Girl had appeared from nowhere and forced herself between us. At least I assumed that it was her, dark ponytails were pretty common after all.

"That's enough" she said, pretty calmly when you saw the size difference between her and Ox Guy.

He seemed reasonably impressed; the sneer turned into a smile anyway "Well if it isn't the jewel of company two, gracing me with her presence. Still playing nanny to weaklings?"

I caught her eyes and tried to look as helpless and useful as I could, she quickly looked away, blinking hastily. Her tone was as sharp as usual "What are you doing here Thomson?"

The boy took off his helmet and raised his arms in a friendlyish way like he was going for the hug "Gem, Gem, come on. You know me better than that; It's your old friend Josh"

Gem, which was a really stupid name, didn't' look impressed "Yes hello Joshua. What are you doing here?"

"Well I saw you zoom off after the Bridge collapsed and thought we could talk" as he spoke he moved closer to her, which she clearly didn't appreciate "Besides I figured you might need some help, what with your ankle and all"

"I'm fine" she snapped which was a bit of an overreaction. I mean if Joshua hadn't just tried to throttle me I might have felt quite sorry for him. "I've had some nectar of Prometheus, that'll fix it"

"Oh..." An awkward silence ensued as Josh tried to think of something to say as Gemma glared at him "I heard my favourite big brother was amongst the dead, but maybe Chantelle was just teasing me…" Josh grinned at her, it was clearly meant to be a comrade-ly joke to break the tension but Gem didn't unstiffen.

"Zack" Josh's face soured at the very mention of the name, it rang a bell in my head too "is very much alive and is expecting me and him", she jabbed a finger in my direction "back at base by sunset"

The finger brought me back to Josh's attention, not a good place to be in any circumstance. "Why do you need him?" he asked in a slow voice, you could practically hear the cogs in his brain working overtime as he tried to figure it out.

"Because…"She paused with a sudden widening of the eyes and I finished her sentence in a raw voice

"I was at the Williamsburg Bridge". Then I realised why she hadn't finished her sentence.

"So was I" stated Josh, a surprisingly triumphant smile on his face.

"He still might have valuable information" Gem stated weakly. If I'd had a better opinion of her I might have thought she was trying to draw Josh's attention from me to her. Instead I thought that she was feeling pretty stupid and trying to cover herself.

"What like their defence plan?" the guy actually laughed at the idea like we couldn't have anything of any danger, which made me really wish I had my bow so I could give him a particularly painful new piercing.

Gem swallowed "Well you know how it is, the bosses will want to talk to him themselves just to check"

"Bosses?" Josh took a step forward, his tone accusing "Since when did you care what the top dogs thought, weren't you one of the main people dragging people of the Princess Andromeda?"

Gem didn't reply but she shot a look in my direction. It wasn't a particularly friendly look, it seemed to me like a Will-you-help-me-out-here-I'm-trying-to-save-your-stupid-neck look to me but Josh certainly didn't like it. He shot me a look of own, though his went more I'm-gonna-kill-you.

"Anyway" Josh looked at my arm and pulled a face like I was some sort of monster "Look at his arm, there's no reason to keep him alive, we can't spare the ambrosia and he's done for without it" As a son of Apollo I wanted to firmly disagree but the idea that I was about to be put down had kind of stopped my vocal chords working.

He went towards the axe he's dropped but Gem got there first, planting her foot firmly on it "Oh no you don't…"

Josh glanced at me with a smirk before turning back to the still stiff Gem "I'll tell you what Gem, I will spare the snivelling runt if you insist"

She looked suspicious "You will?"

"Yes, it would be ungallant of me to refuse a hot maidens request" I felt my stomach tighten at the word 'hot', every word that came out of this guy's mouth made me want to run as far away from him as possible and I was beginning to believe the jewel of company two might feel the same way.

Gem coldly shot back "The phrase is fair maiden"

"Ah but you are beyond fair, you're just hot" I watched a light bulb flick in his head "But as you're the expert, don't fair maiden's kiss their knights in appreciation?"

The hazel eyes narrowed as Gem took a step back "Get lost Thomson" she said with a scowl "I said no and I meant it, let it go"

"Oh that's no way to be Baby" Josh said in what I'm sure he imagined was a smooth voice, to me it just seemed unnerving "Come on, we'll leave the kid here for his friends to find and go back to base together"

He tried to put an arm around her but she pulled away fiercely "Get off me. That Labyrinth really did fuck your mind up if you think I'm going anywhere with you"

Suddenly everything that had seemed off about Josh sprung into full force as his face twisted into a black look. "Don't. Mention. That. Place" he growled, any attempt at trying to be friendly was well over. He sunk to the floor with his hands over his ears like he was having some sort of fit.

Gem backed away towards one of the walls, looking concerned. "Thomson?" she said uncertainly "Are you still with us? Josh…"

His head shot up "Mary?" he cried out desperately, it was terrifying to watch. I could tell he no longer had any idea where he was "Mary come back, it's not safe!"

"Oh gods" Gem was looking properly panicked now, like she'd seen this happen before. As I focused on her I realised something, she wasn't watching me.

I could get out of here. Maybe steal down one of the tunnels, the Demeter lot were sure to let me in and we'd not split too far from them…

"YOU" My escape plans were interrupted by this howl from Josh. I looked at him and spent what seemed like the last seconds of my life processing that he was charging towards me with an axe. They probably would have been the last few seconds of my life too if a massive wall of inappropriately named fur hadn't charged sideways into my attacker.


End file.
